Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too… depending upon weather conditions. Here’s the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui – if it’s working.

Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast… can be found here. The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific… resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

Aloha Paragraphs

Trade winds, better weather ahead…fewer showers

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Monday evening:

The trade winds will blow through this week. Here’s a weather chart showing a high pressure center to the northeast…moving a bit further east. At the same time, we find a low pressure trough over Maui and the Big Island…gradually moving westward. High pressure to our northeast will be the dominate weather feature, with locally gusty trades continuing through this week. The trade winds will remain active through Tuesday, and may increase a notch Wednesday through Thursday. The models continue showing a possible change beginning later Friday into this coming weekend, with the trades faltering once again then. This slacking of the trades would be very unusual for the middle of May…stay tuned.

Satellite imagery shows lots of low level clouds stretched across the western side of the island chain. This cloudiness is the moisture associated with a trough of low pressure, slowly moving through the state…from east to west. These wet clouds will keep off and on passing showers over the windward sides of Kauai and Oahu, and even into the leeward sides of those islands at times too. Here’s the looping radar image, showing numerous showers falling on Kauai to Oahu…with Maui County and the Big Island now mostly outside of this showery area. Kauai, Oahu, and Maui have seen the largest rainfall amounts during the last 24 hours, with rainfall totals between 5+ to near 12.00 inches locally! We should begin to see some general relief from these showers statewide by Tuesday in most areas. As mentioned in the paragraph above, the models are trying to drop yet another trough of low pressure over us later this weekend, which could mean more downpours Sunday into the first part of next week!

Here on Maui [533pm Monday, HST]: This rain producing trough of low pressure, which has kept much of the state in wet weather the last three plus days, is crawling westward. It’s certainly not racing out of town, that’s for sure. It’s located more or less over the western islands now, thus Maui County and the Big island are finally beginning to dry out. I should add that at the moment, it was still cloudy and misting up here in Kula…early this evening. I’ve heard from friends out along the windward side of east Maui however, that the rains have shut down mostly, after what seemed like too much rain lately. The main thing now will be the return of a more typical trade wind weather pattern, although I’m hesitant to say this next thing: temporarily. If you had a chance to read through the paragraphs above, you know we may have another round of lighter winds, locally heavy rains, and even more voggy weather later this weekend…into early next week. I can just hear many of you saying to yourselves…for crying out loud! At any rate, it should be nice weather Tuesday through Saturday, I guess we’ll have to take what we can get. (Update 750pm: clearing in sight after sunset, the mist has ended, the air temperature was 66.6F degrees here at my place in Kula, while down at the Kahului airport at the same time…77 degrees). I’ll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

North and South Indian Oceans:Tropical cyclone 01B (Mahasen) remains active in the Bay of Bengal…located approximately 562 NM south-southwest of Kolkata, India. Sustained winds were 50 knots, with gusts to near 65 knots. Here’s the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, along with a satellite image.

I live upcountry. Is there a spot on the website where I can find weather info for kula or Makawao? I ride my bike to work, so it would be nice to kno if I’m getting rained on this afternoon pau hana. ~~~

Hi Goofcat, I’m afraid that this website might be your best bet…certainly continues to rain here in Kula and Makawao this afternoon, at least at the moment. Drier weather ahead, good you ride your bike, I admire that! Aloha, Glenn